A new future ahead
- A story on the 10th Anniversary of IHL Moot Court Song Tianying was one of the mooters from China University of Political Science and Law for the International Humanitarian Law Moot Court in 2008. …
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Everyone wounded or sick during armed conflict has the right to health care
On the occasion of International Human Rights Day – we, the undersigned organizations, speak out in support of the Health Care in Danger initiative. We forcefully renew our call for wounded and sick …
Universal meeting of National Committees and similar bodies
States' obligations to respect and ensure respect for international humanitarian law States have the primary responsibility, in all circumstances, to respect and ensure respect for international …
Missing migrants from Senegal : "And the sea took him away forever.”
Mamadou (right) is seen in this picture with his wife Kadhy. He was 55 years old when he went missing in 2006. His wife still keeps her husband's carpenter tools, which she shows laid out on a mat. …
Fifth Review Conference of States Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons
Fifth Review Conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons which may be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or …
Update for customary IHL database - December 2016
We have just updated the customary IHL database to include additional practice from Canada and India . The database contains: the 161 rules of customary IHL identified in the ICRC's 2005 customary …
Would you play the game if the rules are changed?
If breaking the rules of the game is absurd what about breaking the rules of war? …
Pakistan: University professors discuss IHL, Islam, and the protection of people affected by conflict
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) together with Islamic Research Institute, a think tank of International Islamic University Islamabad organized a regional course on Islam and …
Australia: Working with militaries to ensure humane treatment of detainees
Detainees are among the most vulnerable populations in armed conflict situations. Amid the violence and volatility of war, they are in danger of disappearing, of being tortured, mistreated and may …
"I can see that they are loved" - A photojournalist reconnects with two Rwandan orphans
It has been two years since photographer Nadia Shira Cohen met two young orphans reunited by the ICRC with their grandmother in Rwanda. Last August, she went back to see how their lives had changed. …
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Created in 1863, the ICRC library, alongside the ICRC archives, provides an indispensable documentary reference on the organization itself and international humanitarian law.
IHL treaties
International humanitarian law is based on a number of treaties, in particular the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols, and a series of other instruments.
Customary IHL
Customary international humanitarian law consists of rules that come from "a general practice accepted as law" and that exist independent of treaty law.